Technical Field
The present invention relates to a snow quality measuring apparatus and a method of measuring snow quality of snow on the ground using millimeter radio waves, for example.
Background Art
One type of natural disaster is that which is caused by snow. Namely, avalanches, roof collapses, etc. cause tremendous damage, and the effect on transportation systems such as railways or roads in cities represents a serious issue on a societal scale. As a countermeasure, ordinary information regarding snow typically involves snowfall amount, temperature, and wind direction, with predictions or the like being derived from these by using surface melting predictions or snow quality change estimation models based on solar radiation amount, snow density, etc.; however, these predictions require a vast amount of data and numerical analysis for each locality and are unsuitable for use with avalanches or extensive areas, for example.
Meanwhile, a technique has been proposed whereby a probe is inserted into the snow to measure snow quality in the depth direction and then ultrasonic waves or radio waves are emitted to the surface of the snow in order to measure or estimate the quality, depth, etc. of the snow on the ground (see Patent Documents 1 to 3, for example).